Poland considers excluding the Chinese telecommunications behemoth Huawei from the IT market in the country, Polish government representative Karol Okoński was quoted as saying in the aftermath of the detention of a Polish citizen and a Chinese businessman, who works for Huawei, on the suspicion of spying for Chinese secret services.

“Polish services responsible for online security have long been analysing the activities of the Chinese company,” the government plenipotentiary told the Polish private radio broadcaster, RMF.

The spokesperson stated however that such a decision may not be taken over the next few weeks, adding that it would not have a direct connection with the arrests regarding spying but as a result of the analyses of many other reports about similar objections to Huawei outside of Europe too.

In December 2018, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer and daughter of the founder of Huawei, was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States for allegedly defrauding multiple financial institutions in breach of US-imposed bans on dealing with Iran.

“We are gathering further arguments for issuing such a recommendation, but we do not want to act hastily here. Ideally, the position of members of the European Union or NATO should be as close as possible and consistent. When we have gathered enough evidence and determined the consequences of the decision about the exclusion, we will communicate that decision immediately,” the representative added.

“Circumstances are increasingly suggestive that Huawei may ultimately have to be actually excluded from participation in the IT market in Poland. Nevertheless, the matter is still under analysis,” the spokesperson emphasised.

Huawei, the southeastern China-based electronics giant, is one of the pioneers of the technology race in the construction of the 5G network. Its exclusion from the Polish market may raise costs and delay its construction.

Meanwhile, Chinese analysts urged Poland not to placate the US by following into its steps of taking on Chinese tech giant Huawei after another company executive was arrested in Poland, following chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou’s case in Canada.

“If Poland wants to damage ties with China over the Huawei case, which is obviously groundless, it will be the biggest loser, as China has an upper hand in dealing with the country, for example, trade,” a research fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Chinese government-owned tabloid Global Times on Friday.